The German, however, claimed the match was harder than the scoreline suggested.

"She's a tough opponent and you need to be ready for the whole match because she's playing the ball very hard and deep in the court," said Kerber.

"I was just trying to move well and play my game.

"I'm happy that I won in two sets."

Li Na, a finalist here two years ago, hit back from 3-5 down in the second set to complete a 6-2 7-5 success against Olga Govortsova, Marion Bartoli defeated Vesna Dolonc 7-5 6-0 while Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic set up an all-Serbian tussle with wins today.

Three more seeds did go out, however. Dominika Cibulkova, the 15th-seeded Slovakian, was stunned 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 by Russian qualifier Valeria Savinykh, number 23 Klara Zakopalova won just one game against Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens and Tamira Paszek, seeded 30, was ousted by Madison Keys.